More than 4,000 people applied to be the Mall of America’s writer-in-residence, which, if you think about it, probably says something about just how tough it is to make a living as a writer.

Sure, “the chance,” as the mall put it, “to spend five days deeply immersed in the Mall atmosphere” in suburban Minnesota, near the Twin Cities, might not be the most glamorous gig. But there are plenty of writers eating ramen on a friend’s couch who would gladly upgrade to four nights in a hotel, along with a $400 mall gift card and a $2,500 honorarium.

So it should not be surprising that the competition proved fierce. What might be more surprising — and even perturbing to other applicants — was that the winner, the poet Brian Sonia-Wallace, has also won a highly publicized Amtrak residency. And a closer inspection of his résumé shows he has been an artist in residence for the City of Los Angeles and has held similar gigs with the National Park Service and even the Dollar Shave Club.

How was all this success at landing offbeat residencies possible? Had Mr. Sonia-Wallace crafted the world’s most perfect application and recycled it over and over? What secrets did he know that other writers do not? Interviews with Mr. Sonia-Wallace and mall officials uncovered no collusion, conspiracy or cabal. Mr. Sonia-Wallace, a 27-year-old recovering theater nerd, turned out to be disappointingly normal. He seems to be just another guy trying to string together enough work to make a living doing what he loves.

He has done better than most. And he has shared some tips.

“For everything on the résumé, there are nine other things I applied to with projects that I was really excited about that never happened,” he said.

He does not feel bad about winning so many residencies. As Mr. Sonia-Wallace sees it, if a project he proposes represents the closest thing to what judges and the corporate sponsors are looking for, he’s just “happy I was able to scry what they wanted.” (If you’re wondering about his obscure word choice, “scry” means “to practice crystal-gazing.”)

In a world filled with high-minded masters of fine arts and self-absorbed screenwriters, Mr. Sonia-Wallace has managed to scrape together a living as a poet by placing a premium on pragmatism. Although he readily admits that some of his friends consider writing for a mall “selling out,” he sees his writing as a service. Like all good service providers, he places the needs of the customer before his own.

After college, Mr. Sonia-Wallace worked at an affordable-housing nonprofit where he learned to write grant applications. When he left that job and needed income, he wrote personalized poetry in public spaces for tips. He and his typewriter — yes, his typewriter — became popular, and strangers for whom he had written poems began inviting him to tap the muse at private events.

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Brian Sonia-Wallace.Creditvia Brian Sonia-Wallace

His first corporate residency came about when a person who did marketing for Dollar Shave Club asked for a poem from Mr. Sonia-Wallace, and then wondered if he would be interested in writing a haiku column for the company’s email newsletter.

Another time, he said, a man invited him to a conference for investment bankers, who wanted poems for their wives.

And lots of people ask him to compose lines about their dogs.

“Those,” he said, “don’t tend to be my favorite.”

But that was kind of the point. His poetry, Mr. Sonia-Wallace came to understand, was for someone — someone other than him.

He kept that framework in mind when he applied to residencies, especially corporate ones. Amtrak, for example, wanted to know if the artists would be sharing their work, so Mr. Sonia-Wallace proposed taking his typewriter into common areas, like the cafeteria, where he could talk to people, and using social media during his cross-country trip.

The Mall of America created its writing competition as a way to celebrate its 25th birthday, so Mr. Sonia-Wallace told officials he would explore questions like: “What were you doing 25 years ago?” and “Who do you wish was here right now?”

During his mall residency in June, he plans to pound out 125 poems on a century-old folding Corona typewriter. They will all be inspired by shoppers and their experiences — an idea that mall representatives said “stood out as creative and engaging.”

Mr. Sonia-Wallace also said that he knew creativity was important to the judges, so he wrote an 800-word poem with numbered sections corresponding to the activities he was pitching.

His most important attribute, writing experts agree, would seem to be persistence.

In an email, Lan Samantha Chang, director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, one of the more celebrated graduate creative writing programs in the country, said that writers should feel no shame in applying for anything that would support their work. Mr. Sonia-Wallace “sounds like an enterprising person” who does exactly that, she said.

“If he continues to win residencies, fellowships and grants,” she said, “more power to him.”